The PIN anomaly around M&A announcements

The probability of information-based trading (PIN) introduced by Easley and O’Hara (1987) has been increasingly used in empirical research in finance. We investigate its behavior around a sample of merger and acquisition announcements that took place on Euronext Paris between 1995 and 2000. The behavior of the PIN seems to be in contradiction with clear evidence of information leakages in our sample during the pre-event period. We investigate the reasons for its unusual behavior and raise some concerns about its use as an information-based trading indicator, at least around major corporate events.     

State ownership and market liberalization: Evidence from China's domestic M&A market

We study how state ownership affects the post-merger performance of Chinese acquirers, and find that state owned acquirers (SOEs) experience a significantly larger long-term performance improvement following mergers compared to their non-state-owned (NSOE) counterparts. When partitioning the sample period into acquisitions made prior to and following China's split-share reform of 2005, we find that the post-merger performance improvement of SOE acquirers is largely attributed to the post reform period in which controlling shareholders converted their non-tradable shares into tradable status. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that state intervention in the form of capital market liberalization and alleviation of governance problems, combined with political connections and privileged access to financing, may have a positive effect on M&A performance that outweighs the inefficiency cost of state ownership in China.     

CEO power,M&A decisions,and market reactions

In this study we examine the relationship between CEO power, corresponding acquisition activities and market reactions to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcements with a Canadian M&A dataset (1997–2005). We use CEO excess pay as a proxy for CEO power. Our empirical results show that the market reactions to M&A announcements are not related to CEO power. It implies that powerful CEOs do not necessarily make value destroying acquisitions. Our results further show that CEO power levels are significantly higher for acquiring firms compared to the CEOs of non-acquiring firms. In other words, CEOs with more relative power make more acquisitions. Such acquisitions will increase the size of the firm and will allow CEOs to demand a higher compensation level for managing larger asset pools and to derive higher performance incentives that are also generally tied to firm size.     

Top-tier advisors and the market feedback dynamics in cross-border M&As

We provide evidence that the presence of top-tier advisors increases managers' propensity to withdraw from cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBAs) with poor market returns around the announcement. This effect is stronger for private target acquisitions, in which information asymmetry is expected to be more pronounced, and smaller bidders, who are likely to lack the expertise required to process information themselves. This suggests that managers assisted by reputable investment banks consider negative market feedback in informationally challenging deals. Our results are robust to several endogeneity tests. We provide novel inferences about the informative role of stock markets in shaping advisory roles in respect of M&As.     

企业价值评估中的市场环境分析

一、企业价值评估概述企业价值评估在现代市场经济体制下有以下经济意义和社会意义:(一)企业价值评估是企业本身的需要。由于企业价值评估是一种经济分析,目的是分析和衡量企业     

市场法在企业价值评估中的应用

市场法是企业价值评估中较为简便、限制条件少、可信度又较高的方法。而价值比率和参考企业的选取是市场法应用中的关键,回归方法是市场法中控制、调整参考企业与所评估企业之间差异的有效途径。     

The CDS market reaction to restatement announcements

I investigate the credit market's reaction to restatement announcements through changes in credit default swap (CDS) spreads. I document an overall positive association between CDS returns and restatement announcements. Specifically, I find that more positive CDS returns are associated with restatements (1) involving fraud and (2) affecting more accounts. Moreover, these reactions are sensitive to the underlying entities’ credit ratings and the market‐wide investor sentiment. Next, I compare CDS and stock market reactions and find that more negative stock returns are associated with restatements (1) involving fraud and (2) decreasing reported income.     

The market valuation of share repurchases in Europe

We analyze a uniquely constructed data set of open market share repurchases across a sample of European firms. We find that the announcement date market reaction is lower than that in the US, mainly because of (i) the relatively large number of recurring announcements which generate significantly lower returns than the initial announcements of intention to repurchase shares; (ii) the rather low market reaction in France, due probably to specific governance and corporate cultural issues; and (iii) the regulatory reform that allowed UK firms to keep the repurchased shares as treasury stock, which decreased their market impact. Across our countries, taxation, shareholder protection, and the European Union’s Market Abuse Directive do not affect significantly the market valuation of repurchases. Our results imply that ultimately, domestic institutional specificities and reforms play significant roles in the market valuation and popularity of share repurchases.     

The role of investment banker directors in M&A

We examine how directors with investment banking experience affect firms? acquisition behavior. We find that firms with investment bankers on the board have a higher probability of making acquisitions. Furthermore, acquirers with investment banker directors experience higher announcement returns, pay lower takeover premiums and advisory fees, and exhibit superior long-run performance. Overall, our results suggest that directors with investment banking experience help firms make better acquisitions, both by identifying suitable targets and by reducing the cost of the deals.     

Dynamic interdependencies among the housing market,stock market,policy uncertainty and the macroeconomy in the United Kingdom

In this study, we examine the dynamic interdependencies among the housing market, stock market, policy uncertainty and the macroeconomy in the United Kingdom, over the period 1997 M1–2015 M02. The findings of this study suggest the following empirical regularities. First, the transmission of various types of shocks contributes significantly to economic fluctuations in the United Kingdom. Second, spillovers show large variations over time. Third, in the wake of the global financial crisis, spillovers have reached unprecedented levels. Specifically, we find large spillovers of shocks from the housing market, stock market and economic policy uncertainty to inflation, economic growth and monetary policy stance. These results illustrate the contagion from the housing and financial crisis to the real economy and the policy reaction to stabilize the economy.     

The role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are among the most important investment activities for companies, but they contain great risks. We investigate the role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection and risk. We find that for risk-averse reasons, firms with high accounting conservatism are likely to acquire profitable targets and avoid loss-making targets. When such firms acquire loss-making targets, the conservatism’s risk-control role reduces M&A risk and increases M&A performance, but only when control of the target is transferred and the acquirer has high long-term debt and low management power. Furthermore, accounting conservatism reduces risk by increasing the maturity match between cash flow and debt. Our results suggest that accounting conservatism plays not only a risk-averse role but also a risk-control role, providing new evidence for the usefulness of accounting conservatism in M&A decisions.     

Pathways to Success in M&A

For many if not most publicly traded companies, acquisition capabilities remain a critical component of sustainable longterm growth and profitability. And even as investors press companies to return excess capital through dividends and stock buybacks, the market continues to assign premium valuations to companies that earn above-average returns through a combination of internal investment and judicious acquisition spending.
This article begins by describing major challenges facing acquirers in the current business and regulatory environment. Then, after showing how M&A can be used to address strategic goals, the authors identify key elements in the M&A strategies of three highly successful companies: General Electric, Danaher, and Illinois Tool Works.     

Board involvement in the M&A negotiation process

This paper examines whether the active engagement of target firm directors in the sale process affects merger outcomes. Using data manually extracted from merger-related SEC filings, I create two measures of target board involvement in merger negotiations: the number of days it takes for the board to meet after the beginning of the sale process and the number of board meetings held throughout the entire process. I find that early board involvement in merger talks increases target shareholder returns and premiums, especially when shareholders have weak control over their firms and are thus in greater need of board protection. Although the two measures of target board activity do not affect acquirer cumulative abnormal returns or the likelihood of competition, such activity does reduce the likelihood of an excessive target termination fee. Robustness analyses dismiss an alternative explanation whereby attractive initial bids lead to both early board involvement and attractive final bids.     

The impact of monetary policy on M&A outcomes

Monetary policy influences a wide range of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) outcomes. First, an increase in the federal funds rate predicts a negative market reaction to M&A announcements, an increase in the likelihood of deal withdrawal, and significant financing challenges for the acquirer in the post-acquisition phase. Second, M&As announced during periods of high monetary policy uncertainty are associated with significant declines in acquirer value. This negative market reaction reflects a unique discount to compensate for the high riskiness of M&As in an uncertain monetary environment. Finally, we show that monetary contraction, rather than monetary policy uncertainty, is a key contributor to the decline in the aggregare M&A activity.     

The options market response to accounting earnings announcements

We examine the reaction of the equity options market to accounting earnings announcements over the period 1996–2008 using changes in implied volatility to measure the options market response to earnings news. We find that positive earnings surprises and positive profit announcements produce a larger uncertainty resolution than negative earnings surprises and loss announcements. We demonstrate an inverse relation between the change in implied volatility and earnings news in a three-day window immediately after an earnings announcement. We refer to the magnitude of this relation as the ‘options market earnings response coefficient’. This ‘options market earnings response coefficient’ is stronger for both bad news announcements and positive profit announcements. We do not find any significant relation between changes in implied volatility and earnings news in the pre- or post-announcement periods. We conclude that the options market efficiently absorbs earnings information.     

The stock market valuation of human capital creation

We develop a measure of firm-year-specific human capital investment from publicly disclosed personnel expenses (PE) and examine the stock market valuation of this investment. Measuring the future value of PE (PEFV) based on the relation between lagged PE and current operating income, we first show that PEFV is positively associated with characteristics of human-capital-intensive firms. Next, we find that PEFV has a positive pricing coefficient, implying that the market recognizes some of its variation. In our main analysis, we find that market participants fail to fully impound the investment in human capital. The absolute value of analyst forecast errors is increasing in firm PEFV, and the signed value of these errors reveals that analysts are pessimistic for earnings of firms with high human capital investments. A long-short portfolio based on PEFV produces annualized value-weighted (equal-weighted) abnormal returns of 6.5% (3.5%). Portfolios formed by interacting PEFV with total PE, which combines the current potential investment in human capital with the historic portion of PE that created human capital, increase these returns to between 4.8% and 7.8%. These results are insensitive to numerous empirical choices.     

Explaining M&A Success in European Banks

We study 98 large M&As of European bidding banks from 1985 to 2000 in order to investigate drivers of excess returns to the shareholders of the targets, the bidders, and to the combined entity of the bidder and the target. Our findings show that many of 13 drivers identified mostly from prior, US‐focused research have significant explanatory power, indicating that the stock market reaction to M&A announcements of European bidding banks can be at least partly forecast. Our results are largely consistent with the US‐experience and confirm the preference of stock markets for focused transactions and against diversification. Moreover, we find that less active bidders create more value than more active/experienced bidders. This stands in contrast to some US research and may indicate that managers of frequent European bidding banks may be motivated by other objectives than creating shareholder value.     

The "Great Moderation" in the United Kingdom

We use a Bayesian time-varying parameters structural VAR with stochastic volatility for GDP deflator inflation, real GDP growth, a 3-month nominal rate, and the rate of growth of M4 to investigate the underlying causes of the Great Moderation in the United Kingdom. Our evidence points toward a dominant role played by good luck in fostering the more stable macroeconomic environment of the last two decades. Results from counterfactual simulations, in particular, show that (i) "bringing the Monetary Policy Committee back in time" would only have had a limited impact on the Great Inflation episode, at the cost of lower output growth; (ii) imposing the 1970s monetary rule over the entire sample period would have made almost no difference in terms of inflation and output growth outcomes; and (iii) the Great Inflation was due, to a dominant extent, to large demand non-policy shocks, and to a lesser extent—especially in 1973 and 1979—to supply shocks.